Congress Passes Continuing Resolution & Eight-Month TEA
21 Extension
October 1, 2004
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Transportation Appropriations
The House and Senate passed, and the President signed into law on September
30, a Continuing Resolution (CR) that funds federal government programs -
including the federal transit program - at Fiscal Year 2004 levels through
November 20. This means that a post-election, lame-duck session of Congress
will definitely take place, likely starting on November 15.
Separately, the House has passed its version of the FY 2005 Transportation-Treasury
appropriations bill (H.R. 5025), without specific funding for transit, highways
or Amtrak due to a jurisdictional dispute between the appropriators and authorizers.
Key appropriations staff have stated that this will be fixed in conference
where the House conferees will base their request on the amounts for transportation
approved by the House Appropriations Committee, including $7.249 billion for
the federal transit program. The Senate could take up its version of the appropriations
bill (S. 2806), which would fund transit at $7.758 billion, the week of October
4, but it is also possible that the Senate will not act on the measure before
the elections. If the Senate passes the bill next week, staff would begin
the process to resolve differences between the bills but the actual conference
on the bill would have to await the lame-duck session.
For more information, please contact Rob Healy in the APTA Government Affairs
Department at (202) 496-4811, or rhealy@apta.com.
TEA 21 Extension and Reauthorization
The House and Senate also passed, and the President signed into law on September
30, H.R. 5183, which extends TEA 21 for eight months, through May 31, 2005.
The bill authorizes transit programs at a level equal to eight-twelfths of
the $7.758 billion included the Senate Appropriations Committee-passed FY
2005 appropriations bill, and it guarantees funding at an annualized level
of $7.265 billion, the level set in the draft FY 2005 budget resolution conference
report. In addition, the bill includes language expressing the sense of Congress
that any six-year reauthorization bill should guarantee funding for the FY
2005 transit program at the authorized level of $7.758 billion. Otherwise
the extension is generally "clean" in that it makes few programmatic
changes and does not contain member projects.
Congress could still consider a long-term extension of TEA 21 in a lame
duck session, but it seems more likely that TEA 21 reauthorization will be
dealt with during the next Congress.
For more information, please contact Rob Healy in the APTA Government Affairs
Department at (202) 496-4811, or rhealy@apta.com.
Transit Security Bills Move Forward
On September 29, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved
H.R. 5082, The "Public Transportation Terrorism Prevention and Response
Act of 2004". The bill would authorize $3.5 billion over three years
for capital and operation costs associated with transit security. The Department
of Transportation (DOT) would provide grants on the basis of threat and risk
assessments. It would require DOT and the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to define and clarify roles of
the respective agencies, security standards, and funding priorities. Further,
the bill would require DOT and DHS to jointly update existing risk assessments
of transit agencies, and would require DOT to develop guidelines for a public
transportation employee security training program. The Senate Banking Committee
previously approved comparable legislation (S. 2453), which authorizes $5.2
billion over three years. The Senate bill differs from the House bill in that
funding and administration of the program would be done through the DHS. Both
bills envision such funding should be separate from and supplementary to longstanding
federal programs for investment in public transportation infrastructure.
Separately, both the House and Senate FY 2005 Department of Homeland Security
appropriations bills provide earmarked funding ($111 million and $317 million,
respectively) for transit and rail security. Senate conferees on the DHS appropriations
bill are Senators: Cochran (R-MS); Stevens (R-AK); Specter (R-PA); Domenici
(R-NM); McConnell (R-KY); Shelby (R-AL); Gregg (R-NH); Campbell (R-CO); Craig
(R-ID); Byrd (D-WV); Inouye (D-HI); Hollings (D-SC); Leahy (D-VT); Harkin
(D-IA); Mikulski (D-MD); Kohl (D-WI); and Murray (D-WA). The House has not
yet named its conferees. APTA has sent a letter to both the House and Senate
members of the Subcommittees on Homeland Security Appropriations, advocating
APTA's position on a number of provisions in the two bills (H.R. 4567 and
S. 2537). The letters are available on the Government Affairs section of www.apta.com.
For more information, please contact Tom Yedinak in the APTA Government
Affairs Department at (202) 496-4865, or tyedinak@apta.com.
House Committee Considers Private Involvement in Public Transportation
The Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Natural Resources and Regulatory Affairs
of the House Committee on Government Reform on September 30 held an oversight
hearing on issues related to private participation in providing public transportation
services. Federal Transit Administrator Jenna Dorn testified on the role of
FTA in encouraging public transportation systems to seek the involvement of
private enterprise in providing transportation services. APTA will submit
testimony on the benefits of public transportation for the hearing record;
it will be available shortly on the Government Affairs section of www.apta.com.
For more information, please contact Josh Fudge in the APTA Government Affairs
Department at (202) 496-4810, or jfudge@apta.com.
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